Tangata o le moana

"This illustrated history tells the amazing story of Pacific people and their relationships with, and contributions to, New Zealand society. In a great feat of exploration and migration, Pacific Islanders became the first people to step foot on these shores some 800 years ago. Today, New Zealand is home to the largest population of Pacific Islanders anywhere in the world, and New Zealand has a long history with the other islands of the Pacific, their people and their cultures. Yet how many New Zealanders consider themselves Pacific Islanders, despite this shared geography and past? How many know the amazing history of New Zealand's Pacific people? Tangata o le Moana is the first book to present that history. It tells the stories of Pacific people past and present, in all areas of life - on the street, on the sports field, in the recording studio, on the political stage, and beyond. There are highs, and there are lows - from the dawn raids of the 1970s to Tana Umaga becoming first Samoan captain of the All Blacks. And alongside tales of legendary figures like Kupe and historical figures like the navigator priest Tupaia, there are previously untold stories, too - like the first-person accounts of Pacific people who visited and settled here in the 1800s, at a time when New Zealand's leaders dreamed of creating their own empire in the Pacific, or the Pacific Islands soldiers who fought and died for New Zealand in the two world wars." --Publisher description.